Reviewing Random Films For Fun

June 1, 2015

Good Bye, Lenin! #MovieReview

Film 194 in the “1001 Films to See Before You Die” challenge is 2003’s “Good Bye, Lenin!”. This Wolfgang Becker romantic comedy takes place right before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Alex Kerner (Daniel Brühl) is living with his mom, Christiane (Katrin Saß), and sister, Ariane (Maria Simon). But when the mother, a loyal party member, sees Alex participating in an anti-communist rally, she falls into a coma and misses the revolution. After she wakes, doctors say any jarring event could make her have a heart attack, meaning the family must go to great lengths to pretend communism still reigns in Berlin. Honestly I was bored watching this. It felt like I was watching a documentary about life before and after the collapse of The Wall. The only things that didn’t make it a documentary were the mother being in a coma and the relationship between Alex and Lara. I couldn’t really find anything funny while watching it unless you want to laugh at Burger King and Coca-Cola. It even makes references to two Stanley Kubrick movies, “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “A Clockwork Orange”. I only knew that because the film told us. Overall, I didn’t enjoy this but that doesn’t mean you can’t watch it. Give it a go. In 2003, Philip French from The Observer had this to say about the film, “A remarkable film that makes you laugh and leaves you thinking. It’s the work of people who have a great sense of humour.” Fun Fact of the Film – The building in the “Coca-Cola new bulletin” was also used by Billy Wilder for 1961’s “One, Two, Three”. If you have seen this film then let me know what you thought of it in the comments. Here is what I had to say while watching 2003’s “Good Bye, Lenin!”

Film – Good Bye, Lenin!
Year – 2003
Director – Wolfgang Becker
Written by – Wolfgang Becker, Bernd Lichtenberg
Staring – Daniel Brühl, Katrin Saß, Chulpan Khamatova
IMDb Rating – 7.8/10
My Rating – ZZZzzz
Length – 116 min (1h 56min)
Genre – Comedy, Drama, Romance
We open with archive footage of Alex and Ariane pulling pranks on each other
(INSERT PHOTOS OF BERLIN FROM 1989)
Time to watch the Germans head into space in 1978
Two detectives question Christiane about if her husband is planning on fleeing East Germany for West Germany
The spacemen have made two dolls get married
I would hug you but your dressed as a rocket
I’m assuming Christiane just divorced her husband if she’s throwing all his stuff into a sack
Don’t interrupt me when I’m doing the crossword
Alex is now in training to head into space – He’s a little young isn’t he?
It’s 1989 and East Germany is now 40 years old
I can’t focus with all this rattling
Not sure if spitting on an iron makes it heat up again
October 7 1989 and people are marching to have the wall taken down
Alex is in the march and almost choked on an apple
Are they ramming into everyone with trucks?
Christiane has just spotted Alex and collapses
That must have been a hard punch to make him puke
Alex is let out of prison because Christiane is in a coma
The leader of the Democratic Party has resigned
And down goes The Berlin Wall
What the fu..? That a woman with massive boobs licking whipped cream of them
Shout out to Burger King where Ariane works
Does Alex now have a leg fetish?
Alex reunites with the girl he saw at the march, Lara
Shout out to Coca-Cola
Time to stalk the girl I’m madly in love with all of a sudden
Alex has now lost his job as a TV repair man but is hired to work at another repair shop
4 earlys and 35 late shifts later and Alex and Lara finally have a night out together
Are they at a knock-off Rammstein concert?
Doesn’t mater as the two drink beer and chat
Someone has clearly never smoked before
Anyone want free satellite TV?
Time to watch some feature films
He seems impressed that he turned a bunch of flowers into cake
Shout out to “2001: A Space Odyssey”
It’s 1990 and Christiane is still in a coma
I know your working right now but KISS ME
Christiane is awake! The doctors are glad she doesn’t have amnesia
Bad news is that she only has a few weeks to live and can’t leave the hospital
Let’s pretend The Wall never fell and East & West Germany is still a thing
Who keeps a sunbed in their flat?
Alex plans to bring Christiane home and pretend every was the way it was eight months ago
Why is the doctor punching Alex in the chest?
Their ambulances are a bit small
And I’m bored of the film
ZZZzzz